Scott Wykoff's Blog

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Pastranathon Always Lands Back Home

Maryland's-own Travis Pastrana has always lived his life in the fast lane traveling around the world riding dirtbikes, base jumping, performing stunts and rally car racing.

But now the Annapolis native and University of Maryland grad who has become a world-wide rock star of sorts has shifted things into yet a higher gear. And Travis stopped by the station recently to talk all about it!

The 13-time X-Games motocross champion has parlayed his fame on two wheels into stardom on 4-wheels.

The now 28-year-old who smashed his corvette into a tree in Davidsonville is now a very up-and-coming NASCAR driver.

The nephew of former Terps quarterback Alan Pastrana turned plenty of heads at the Brickyard as he raced to a career-best 13th place finish in the inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the home of the Indianapolis 500.

All as the almost larger-than-life racer is now just a few days away from making his big screen 3-D debut. "Nitro Circus" will premier nationwide next week. Bringing his popular TV show to a theatre near you.

A film he and some of his local friends from the Baltimore and Annapolis area got together and financed themselves.

What else would you expect from a a guy who climbed on his first dirt bike when he was 4, graduated from high school two years early and then earned a 4.0 GPA during his time in College Park as at the University o Maryland.

In the movie Travis and his friends travel around the world riding dirtbikes, base jumping, and performing stunts. Sound familiar?

Remember all the talk of Pastranathon last year?

That was when, all in one weekend, Travis was scheduled to compete in the X-Games and then fly across the nation to climb behind the wheel in a NASCAR race and then race to the airport again and fly back cross the country to for the X-Games RallyCross. Unfortunately a crash of sorts in X-Games Best Trick sent him to the hospital with a broken foot and forced him out of the NASCAR race. But not one to disappoint, using a hand held device connected to his steering wheel, Travis raced in the road rally and even won a qualifier before finishing 4th overall. Even after crashing in the finals.

No biggie here. We're talking about Travis Pastrana.

And guess who is the same age as our own homegrown record-setting Olympic swimming champion? And guess who also always comes back home to Maryland after his biggest wins, just like his swimming contemporary from around here?